


The Drift is Silence

by ArethusaRay



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Anal Sex, Danger, First Kiss, First Time, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Hive Mind, Jaeger Pilots, Kaiju, Love, M/M, Mind Meld, Oral Sex, Rock Stars, Scars, Schmoop, Spoilers, Tattoos, Unrequited Love, Wordcount: 5.000-10.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-07
Updated: 2013-08-07
Packaged: 2017-12-22 16:15:42
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/915325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArethusaRay/pseuds/ArethusaRay
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Newt and Hermann save the world together, but in the drift they discover feelings they would rather keep hidden.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Drift is Silence

**Author's Note:**

> Follows the entire plot of Pacific Rim, so spoilers, obviously.

Newt was too excited to notice the rain as he and Hermann maneuvered his kaiju specimens into the building. That was _Raleigh Fucking Becket_ getting off that chopper! Raleigh and Yancy had been the best in their day, and that kaiju that got Yancy- Knifehead- was utterly awesome. He couldn’t wait to show Raleigh his tattoos.

“Come, Newton, do you want to soak in the rain all day?” Hermann nudged him impatiently.

Newt snapped out out of his thoughts and rushed to catch up with Pentecost, Mako Mori, and _Raleigh Becket_ , trailing an exasperated, limping Hermann behind him.

“Stand back! Kaiju specimens are very rare, so look but don’t touch please!” Newt yelled, forgetting how star struck he was as Raleigh got a little too close to the tank.

“Mr. Becket, this is our research team: Dr. Gottlieb and Dr. Geiszler,” Stacker Pentecost introduced them with a motion of his head.

“Call me Newt,” Newt grinned. “Only my mother calls me ‘doctor.’” Why did no one ever laugh at that? He saw Hermann hiding behind one of the tanks. “Hermann, these are human beings, why don’t you come say hello?”

“I have asked you not to refer to me by my first name when we are around others-”

Newt cut him off. “Ten years! Ten years of experience!” He would never admit it to anyone, but Newt loved to rile Hermann up. The man just got so _agitated_ , it was kind of adorable, and a lot of fun.

Newt, oblivious to the impression he gave with his disheveled appearance, rain soaked glasses, and unprofessional bickering, took off his jacket and rolled up his sleeves. He wanted to show off his art in a way that he hoped was inconspicuous, but was actually the opposite. 

“Who is that? Yamarashi?” Raleigh asked, gesturing to a prominent kaiju on his forearm. 

Newt tried to play it cool. “Oh, this little kaiju? Yeah, you got a good eye.”

“My brother and I took him down in 2017.”

“You know he was one of the biggest category threes ever? He was two thousand five hundred tons of awesome.” It took him a moment to realize he just put his foot in his mouth. “Or awful, you know. Whatever you want to call it.”

Hermann cut in. “You’ll have to excuse him, he’s a kaiju groupie. He loves them.”

“Shut up, Hermann, I don’t love them, okay? I study them. And unlike most people, I want to see one alive and up close one day.”

Raleigh placed a hand on his shoulder. “Trust me, you don’t wanna.”

Hermann shook his head at Newt as Raleigh followed Pentecost and Mori out. 

Newt sighed. That was not exactly how he’d pictured meeting his hero. At least he could still wind Hermann up. “You know, Hermann, you’re awfully cute when you’re angry.”

Hermann fumed, his cheeks flushed. “Why do you say things like that to me, Newton?” He grabbed the nearest specimen cart and skulked toward the lab without waiting for an answer.

Newt laughed, grabbed a specimen of his own, and followed.

***

Hermann stepped back and studied his equations for the umpteenth time. There could be no denying it. Numbers don’t lie. Unless Marshall Pentecost and his jaegers acted soon, they would be handing the world over to the kaiju in a scant week’s time. 

He winced at the squelching sound of Newton digging through the kaiju entrails and sighed disgustedly. He’d learned to tolerate the smell, but the _noise_ . . . 

He flinched when Marshall Pentecost and Mr. Hansen marched into the lab, but recovered quickly and stayed on his ladder. He spoke impassionately, leaping off the ladder and rapping the chalkboard with his cane. “In four days we could be seeing the kaiju every eight hours until they are coming every four minutes. And, Marshall, we should witness a double event within seven days.” He barely took a breath but it was imperative that he convince Pentecost of the danger. They had to act immediately. 

“Mr. Gottlieb,” Hermann rankled at the _mister_ but he didn’t correct him. “I have to drop a two thousand four hundred pound thermonuclear bomb. I need more than a prediction.”

Newton chimed in, “Well, uh, that’s a problem then, ‘cause he actually can’t give you anything more than a prediction.” He tossed a scrap of intestine toward the table but it slid off and fell to the floor. 

Hermann kicked it aside, upset both at the viscera and the blatant attempt to misdirect the conversation toward Newton’s ludicrous ideas. “No kaiju entrails on my side of the room! You know the rules! Every bloody day! It’s incessant!”

Pentecost yelled, “Please!”

Hermann remembered who he was talking to and said, in a much calmer voice, “Numbers do not lie. Politics, poetry, promises, these are lies. Numbers are as close as we get to the handwriting of God.”

“What?” Newton laughed from behind him.

Hermann spun around, furious, “Would you give me a moment?” He turned back to Pentecost, fire still burning in his eyes. “There will be a double event. Then shortly thereafter, three. Then four.”

“And then we’re dead, I get it,” Pentecost said impatiently. 

“Yes, this is where the rather good news comes in.” Hermann walked to his computer terminal and pulled up the program he’d prepared. “Here is our universe, and here is their’s.” He made sweeping motions and the hologram showed two circles, one above the other. “And this is what we call the throat, the passage between the breach and us.” He displayed the cylindrical channel between the two circles. “We know that it’s atomic in nature. I predict that increased traffic will force the breach to stabilize and remain open long enough to get the device through and collapse its structure.” He showed the animation of the explosion. 

Newton interjected. “And that’s where I gotta chime in because really, I mean I wouldn’t wanna go in there with that limited amount of information.”

“Newton, don’t embarrass yourself.”

“Hear me out for a second. Give me a second. Please.”

To Hermann’s dismay, Pentecost and Hansen turned toward Newton. Hermann tried to dissuade them, but they were apparently willing to listen to Newton’s insane ideas. He sharply shut of his display and stood behind them.

“Why do we judge the kaiju on a category system? It’s because each one is completely different from the next, right? You see what I’m saying? Like one was like a shark and one was like a fish . . .”

“Dr. Geiszler, just get to the point,” Pentecost sighed. 

Hermann wished Pentecost would just shut him up. It wasn’t that he didn’t respect Newton as a scientist- he did- but he’d heard this nonsense before. The idea of drifting with a kaiju brain was preposterous. Even though he knew it was scientifically impossible, the idea still frightened him down to his very core. And the idea of Newton attempting such a thing . . . Well, that just couldn’t be allowed to happen. Hermann would make sure of that. 

He often wondered how Newton had survived so long with so little common sense before the two of them were thrown together in this shoddy, makeshift laboratory. Now that they were together, Hermann was going to watch out for Newton’s best interests, whether Newton liked it or not.

“The point is, I don’t think they’re all completely different after all. These are some samples I collected earlier.” Newton pulled out two cross sections of kaiju flesh and explained how they were clones, but by this point Hermann had stopped really listening. 

“And this is the point where he goes completely crazy,” Hermann whispered to the two men who possessed the power to forever keep Newton away from the equipment he wanted. 

Newton showed them the damaged brain and explained his desire to drift with it. Pentecost and Hansen immediately shot him down. Hermann felt a sense of smug satisfaction when they only asked for _his_ notes and not Newton’s. Hermann saluted as Newton protested loudly.

“Newton, I know you’re desperate to be right so you have not wasted your life being a kaiju groupie, but it’s not going to work.” That seemed fair payback for the comment in the hall earlier.

“It is going to work, Hermann, and I’ll tell you something else: fortune favors the brave, dude.”

“You heard them. They won’t give you the equipment. And even if they did, you’d kill yourself!” He stormed off.

“Or I’d be a rockstar!”

Hermann rolled his eyes and breathed an inward sigh of relief that Pentecost had seen reason. 

***

Newton waited until he knew Hermann would be gone for a good, long time before he assembled the scraps he’d been saving. He took out his pocket recorder to leave a message for Hermann. And, you know, for research.

“Kaiju/human drift experiment, take one.” He put the recorder in his shirt pocket. He explained, both to himself and the recorder that the brain was probably far too damaged to drift with and that he _wasn’t_ doing a really stupid, life-threatening thing. 

“Hermann, if you’re listening to this, well, I’m either alive and I’ve proven what I’ve just done works. In which case, ha ha, I won. Or I’m dead, and I’d like you to know that it’s all your fault, it really is, you know. You drove me to this. In which case, ha, I also won. Sort of. Going in in three, two, one!” He took a deep breath and pushed the button to initiate the drift, and the world as he knew it disappeared.

***

Hermann entered the lab and saw Newton convulsing on the floor as blood flooded from his nose. He raced to him in a blind panic. “Newton, my God, what have you done?” Newton’s eyes rolled back in his head. Hermann gripped his face. “Newton, look at me! Newton!”

After what felt like an eternity, Newton’s eyes finally found his, although they couldn’t seem to focus. Hermann pulled the slapdash helmet off of his head and glanced around at the surrounding equipment. He knew in his gut what Newton had done, but he couldn’t believe it.

He noticed Newton’s recorder on the floor by his foot and picked it up. It was still recording, so he stopped it and played back the track. “. . . Or I’m dead, and I’d like you to know that it’s all your fault, it really is, you know. You drove me to this. In which case, ha, I also won. Sort of. Going in in three, two, one!”

Hermann frowned at his injured friend. “Really, Newton? You are such a child.”

The recording was mostly static with an occasional groan, then, “hive mind!” He heard his own footsteps enter the room and pressed ‘stop.’ He stared at Newton, his mouth hung open in disbelief. 

Newt’s head lolled back and he whispered, “I won.”

Hermann ran for the control room. “Marshall! Marshall! I need to talk to you!”

“Not now, Mr. Gottlieb. I’m sure you can appreciate how important this moment is to me.”

“Newton created a neural bridge from garbage and drifted with the kaiju.”

He led Marshall Pentecost back to the lab, explaining that Newton was rather dazed, and while he’d gotten him propped up in a chair and handed him a glass of water, he couldn’t actually get him to talk. He was very concerned that Newton had fried his brain. He didn’t know what he would do if that was the case. 

Newton brightened when he saw Pentecost. “I told you it would work.”

“Yes you did. Well, what’d you see?”

“You know, it was only a fragment of a brain so all I was able to get was like a series of, uh, images or impressions, you know like when you blink your eyes over and over and over again and all you really see is like frames, or . . .”

Pentecost glanced back at Hermann, who shook his head. To see Newton like this, to hear him ramble like a madman, it made Hermann want to cry. The idiot should have known how dangerous, how suicidal it was to attempt this experiment alone. 

Pentecost pulled up a chair and sat down next to Newton. “I need you to look at me.” Newton turned and tried to focus on Pentecost. “Now I want you to take your time and be very specific.”

“Okay. Okay. Well, I don’t feel like they’re just following some sort of animalistic urge, just hunting and gathering. I think they’re attacking us under orders.”

It was too much for Hermann. “That’s impossible.”

“Is it impossible?”

“Simply impossible.”

Newton screamed, “You know what, why don’t you-”

Hermann started to scream back when Marshall Pentecost turned and ordered, _“You, shut up!”_ It was the single most terrifying moment of Hermann’s life. Pentecost turned back to Newton, “You, keep talking.”

“These beings, they’re colonists. They overtake worlds. They just, they just consume them and then th-th-they move onto the next. And they’ve been here before, sort of a trial run. It was the dinosaurs. But the atmosphere wasn’t conducive, right? So they waited it out and waited it out. And now, you know with ozone depletion and carbon monoxide and polluted waters, well, we practically terraformed it for them. ‘Cause now they’re coming back. And it’s perfect. See, the first wave, that was just the hounds. Categories one through four, that was nothing. Their sole purpose was to aim for the populated areas and take out the vermin- us. The second wave, that’s the exterminators. And they _will_ finish the job. And then the new tenants will take possession.” Pentecost stood. “See, the reason that I found the identical DNA in the two separate kaiju organs is because they _are_ grown.”

“Agent, I need you to do it again. I need more information.” 

For a moment, Hermann was certain that he had a heart attack. Newton looked up in disbelief and fear. 

“Well, I can’t, I can’t do it again. I mean, not unless you have a fresh kaiju brain lying around.” Hermann wanted to ask if this was really an appropriate time for sarcasm, but he didn’t want to get yelled at again. He couldn’t see Pentecost’s face, but Newton’s expression changed to disbelief. “Do you?”

Marshall Pentecost explained that he had authorized a certain black market criminal access to the kaiju in exchange for funding. 

Hermann was appalled. “You did that?”

“Last days of war, gentlemen.”

Still, it hardly seemed a valid reason to do business with someone of Hannibal Chau’s reputation. Especially when that business was now directly interfering with Hermann’s life and was probably going to wind up getting Newton killed. Pentecost handed Newton a card and told him how to find Chau. Hermann glared at him. Pentecost took no notice. 

***

Newt concentrated on tracking down the secret symbol on the card. This was so cool. He was actually tracking down some underworld boss for black market kaiju brains. He was a legitimate badass now. He finally found the place and walked into the shop. The shopkeep, a really freaky looking guy who’d probably been to one too many Grateful Dead shows back in the day, got his attention and said conspiratorially, “You looking for some kaiju bone powder?”

“Some bone powder? Uh, no. Why would I want that?”

“Male potency! I take it myself.”

Newt didn’t really want to picture that. “I see. Uh, _no_ , thank you. I’m looking for Hannibal Chau.”

The Grateful Dead guy made a motion to the guy at the door and this all suddenly felt like a gangster movie. The door-guy locked the door, while the Grateful Dead guy simply said, “Come.” He opened a secret panel in the back wall- very cool- and the wall slid apart. “You want Chau, huh? Good luck.”

Newt stepped through into an ornate kaiju paradise. “Oh my god! Oh my god! This place is heaven!” There were organs and a whole cuticle and skin parasites and one very large, scary man, who could be none other than Hannibal Chau. 

“What do you want?” the scary looking man asked.

“I’m looking for Hannibal Chau. I was told he was here.” It was a stupid thing to say, since clearly he was addressing Hannibal Chau, but he didn’t really know how else to start. Especially after geeking out over the kaiju specimens. 

“Who wants to know?”

“I really can’t say.” He felt very James Bond. Then Chau pulled out a butterfly knife and stuck the business end up his nostril. James Bond never got a knife up _his_ nostril. Maybe if he did, he’d stay calm and collected but probably not because it really hurt and was really scary. “Stacker Pentecost sent me!” Chau removed the blade, not at all gently, and Newt clutched his nose. “Oh that’s great!” he yelled, still trying to sound like a badass and not burst into tears. “That’s real great. So I take it you’re Hannibal Chau, right?”

“You like the name? I took it from my favorite historical character and my second favorite Szechuan restaurant in Brooklyn. Now, tell me what you want, before I gut you like a pig and feed you to the skin louse.”

Newt didn’t hesitate to explain. “I need to access a kaiju brain, completely intact.”

“No, no, no. The skull plate is so dense by the time you drill into it-”

“The brain’s rotted away.” Newt finished for him. He explained that the secondary brain is easier to get to. Chau was not exactly receptive to the idea. Newt remembered Pentecost’s warning not to trust the man, but he had to convince him to get him the brain. And Chau was really intimidating. He was probably the only person who could call someone “Little Fella” and make it sound terrifying. So when Chau asked him flat out what he needed a brain for, Newt remained completely professional. “Well, that’s classified, so I couldn’t tell you, even if I wanted to. But it is pretty cool. So I might tell you. I’m gonna tell you. I figured out how to drift with a kaiju.” 

He was so proud. He expected praise, disbelief, exaltation. He certainly didn’t expect Chau’s ire. “Are you funnin’ me, son?”

“It’s fascinating how their minds work! Every single kaiju’s mind is connected! The species has, like, a hive mind!”

Chau grabbed his face and looked at his eye. “Holy Jesus. You’ve gone and done it, haven’t ya?”

“I did it a little bit, yeah.”

Chau released him. “You’re a goddamn moron.”

They got word that there were two kaiju headed straight for Hong Kong. Newt couldn’t believe it. First of all, that meant Hermann was right, and he really didn’t want to deal with Hermann gloating. Second, it was just impossible. If there were two and they were heading for the city, then that meant all four jaegers had failed. It was impossible.

“That’s impossible! There’s never been two before!”

“Well, maybe that’s ‘cause no one ever drifted with one before, eh? Genius! When jaeger pilots drift it’s a two way street, a bridge, a connection, _both ways_! A hive mentality, you said! Maybe those kaiju are trying to find you!”

Newt’s brain crashed. “What are we going to do?”

“I’m going to wait out this shit storm in my own private kaiju bunker, but you are going to a public refuge. I tried it once.” Chau pulled off his glasses to reveal a mangled eye. “Once. Now get the hell out of here.”

Newt ran until he found himself filed into the public shelter, completely overwhelmed by the day. His head still throbbed from drifting with the kaiju brain and his dignity, not to mention his nostril, hurt from his meeting with Hannibal Chau. The drift goes both ways. He _was_ an idiot. He thought back to his experiment and wondered why the thought hadn’t occurred to him. What did occur to him was that this was all still Hermann’s fault, at least a little. If the stubborn mathematician had helped him instead of mocking him at every turn, he probably would have remembered that the drift worked both ways.

The kaiju footsteps grew closer and Newt knew he was about to die. He’d been too close to death too many times today and he just couldn’t handle it anymore. He patted his pocket for the recorder so he could tell Hermann again that this was absolutely, entirely his fault, but the recorder wasn’t there. The kaiju crashed through the bunker ceiling. Newt found himself face to face with two thousand five hundred tons of stinking, growling, terrifying death. He wished again that he had his recorder, so he could delete all that other stuff and tell Hermann that he only teased him because he was a little bit in love with him.

He recoiled as the kaiju’s mouth tentacles examined him. But rather than eating him, the kaiju turned it’s massive back on him to face the calvary: Gipsy Danger.

***

Hermann tried to focus on the crisis at hand in the Shatterdome. Lives were at stake; he couldn’t afford to split his attention. But he worried about Newton, nevertheless. Who knew what trouble that idiot would get himself into without him there?

“I should have insisted I go with him,” he muttered to himself. 

Then the power went out.

With two jaegers down and the third disabled, he knew the probability of any of them surviving a double event was close to zero. It was more than likely that they had just lost the war. Even if Gipsy Danger could miraculously defeat both class four kaiju, there would still be another attack after. He was witnessing the end of humanity. But all he cared about was losing Newton.

As the second kaiju moved toward Hong Kong City, where Newton was probably just standing out in the open somewhere, he struggled to control his breathing and remain professional. He felt no relief when Gipsy Danger prevailed. It wasn’t until Marshall Pentecost ordered, “Go and get Dr. Geiszler, now!” that he dared to hope that things might turn out okay. 

He gave a resounding, “Yes, sir!” and rushed out as fast as his bum leg would carry him, yelling at anyone nearby to follow him with equipment. If Newton was still alive, he knew where to find him. He would be preparing to drift with the fallen kaiju. Hermann didn’t like it, but this was save-the-world time and Newton wanted to be a rockstar. Newton didn’t care that the neural load was too much for him to bear alone; he was willing to sacrifice himself to prove that his theory was correct. Hermann couldn’t let him do that, but he certainly didn’t like any of the alternatives. 

By the time he found Newton- still alive, thank God, and standing by what appeared to be a fetal kaiju- his mind was made up.

***

Newt had Hermann in a vise-tight embrace before he remembered that his colleague hated to be touched. Hermann gave only a token protest, though, so Newt guessed he was equally glad to see him. 

“You must be excited to see a fetal kaiju. Where’s his tattoo going to go?” Hermann asked when he managed to pry himself out of Newt’s arms.

Newt paled slightly, but quickly recovered his affable grin. “I think I’ll give this little guy a place of honor across my chest,” he said as he rubbed his palm against his breastplate, testing the idea. 

An odd look passed over Hermann’s face before he rolled his eyes dramatically. Newt wanted to ask about it, because for a second there, just for a second, Hermann looked like he might want to see that. Newt let the moment pass. He knew he was only projecting his own desires onto his lab-mate. 

He turned his focus to the equipment. There was a lot to set up, but he didn’t mind. He was pumped. He would be a rockstar after today. In his excitement, he forgot about the panic he’d been through in the past few hours. Mostly.

Hermann got the call that there were only two kaiju at the rift instead of his projected three, and he flipped out. “Two? There are two kaiju signatures in the breach, not three like I predicted!”

“Hermann! I haven’t exactly had a very good day, okay? I’ve got about five minutes before brain damage starts here. I don’t want to stand here and talk about your theories!” Newt shoved the probe into the kaiju and stormed toward the computer terminal. Hermann trailed behind him.

“They’re wrong! There should be three kaijus coming through, not two!”

“Oh, there should be three? I’m sorry!”

“I am not wrong! There is something here that we don’t understand.”

“Hermann, hopefully we can argue about any mistakes you made in your predictive model in the future, but in the meantime, the neural interface is way off the charts. If you want to help, help with that!”

“I am not wrong! There is only one way to make sure.” Hermann put on his glasses and typed furiously. 

Newt had to admit that a small part of him enjoyed seeing Hermann get something wrong, especially in light of his own overwhelming (sort of) success. He shook his head as Hermann typed numbers in like an agitated chimp while Newt made final preparations. 

Hermann turned to Newt and removed his glasses. “Then let’s do this together. I’ll go with you. That’s what the jaeger pilots do, share the neural load.”

“You’re serious? You would do that for me? _With_ me! You would do that with me?” Newt’s heart raced. It had just slipped out. All at once he was overcome with feelings, with love, for his friend. He knew Hermann’s opinion on this and he couldn’t believe he would offer such a thing.

Hermann ignored the awkward moment. “Well, with worldwide destruction a certain alternative, do I really have a choice?” He smiled a half grin that made Newt want to kiss him square on the mouth. 

Instead, he said, “Then say it with me, my man: we’re going to own this bad boy!” He stuck out his hand.

Hermann fumbled with his own hand, trying every combination of handshake except the appropriate one, but responded enthusiastically, “By Jove, we are going to own this thing for sure!”

Newt laughed and studied Hermann’s smiling eyes. They were going to save the freakin’ world.

They affixed their neural helmets and stood side by side. Hermann looked less certain now that he actually had wires hooked up to his head. Newt asked, “You ready for this?” but Hermann didn’t really respond. “Initiating neural handshake in five, four, three, two, one.” He pushed the button and initiated the drift. 

It was different with two people. His own memories were vivid and tangible, but he found that if he figuratively stepped to his left, he was in Hermann’s memories. He wandered around in them a bit, not lingering on any one too long. He got a general impression of his friend’s life. He was startled to learn that they were nearly the same age. The way Hermann dressed and condescended to Newt, he’d assumed the man to be much older. He was also struck by how lonely his memories were. One of Hermann’s thoughts crossed through Newt’s brain. _It is a difficult world for someone who is intelligent, crippled, and a homosexual._

Newt paused. _Hermann’s gay?_ He stepped back into Hermann’s memories and looked more closely for some kind of evidence. He’d never given the matter much thought, but now he had to know.

He found a memory of Hermann looking at him in their lab. He was seeing himself from Hermann’s perspective. He watched Hermann watch him whenever his back was turned. He felt Hermann’s heart race when he smiled at him. He felt the pain and frustration of an unrequited crush.

_But it’s not unrequited!_

Suddenly, he felt Hermann’s fear and held out his hand, though whether it was in reality or only in his mind he wasn’t sure. He felt Hermann take it in his own and the world snapped into focus. They were in the kaiju hive mind.

***

Hermann regretted his decision as soon as Newton initiated the drift. The world turned a nauseating shade of blue and white. Memories flooded through him, some his own and some, he assumed, belonged to Newton. He tried not to look at those. He didn’t want Newton inside his head, didn’t want him to learn any secrets, but he wasn’t sure how to block access. He started to panic until he felt Newton take his hand. 

He’d been lost for a few seconds or a million years of relative time, but Newton steadied him and they went together into the kaiju brain.

Hermann (and by extension, Newton) was overwhelmed with horror. The jaegers were going to fail. 

Unless he and Newton could get back to the Shatterdome in time.

The link snapped and they found themselves back in the real world. Hermann retched in a nearby toilet and held out his hand for the handkerchief he knew Newton carried. He wiped his mouth and said, “The drift, you saw it.” It wasn’t a question.

“Yeah.”

“Did you?”

“We have to warn them! The jaegers- the breach- the plan-”

“It’s not going to work.”

They raced back and could only hope they were not too late.

***

Newt should have been too distracted by the battle for humanity happening right in front of him to even notice that Hermann pressed against his shoulder as they shared the intercom mic, but he was actually fighting to concentrate on anything else. Hermann did not like to be touched. Hermann never touched anyone else willingly. He had _never_ casually brushed up against _anyone’s_ shoulder.

Then Pentecost and Chuck Hansen were dead and Newt knew he was part of the end of humanity. He stood next to Hermann and let their fingertips brush together as he willed Raleigh and Mako to make it through the breach and detonate the bomb. Hermann didn’t pull his hand away. Newt wasn’t sure what this contact meant to Hermann, but for Newt it brought comfort. Even though they were out of the drift he still felt a tangible connection between them and a strong desire to be physically close.

The bomb went off and their world separated from the kaiju world. Mako’s pod came up safely, then, after a tense few moments, so did Raleigh’s. It took Newt a moment to realize that it was over. They won. He turned and hugged Hermann. He had just enough mental capacity left to register surprise as Hermann returned the hug just as forcefully. 

Everyone applauded and clapped them on the back and congratulated them on a job well done. The excitement intensified with the arrival of Mako and Raleigh. Before long, the whole population seemed to gather together to celebrate. Newt could hardly believe it. They did it. _They were fucking rockstars!_

Drinks were passed around and Newt soaked in the adulation until he realized that Hermann was not by his side. He knew, without knowing how he knew, that he had slipped out and gone to his quarters while no one was looking. He was probably taking a shower, brushing his teeth, combing his hair, doing those things you do every night _except the night you saved the world and there’s a party thrown in your honor._ Newt high-fived a few people, said, “I’ll be right back,” and left the party.

***

Hermann muttered to himself as he combed his freshly washed hair. He should leave Hong Kong now that it was all over. He didn’t want to stick around after Newton had seen inside his head. He’d felt him in there. He tried so hard to shut out certain memories, certain feelings, but it seemed the harder he tried to suppress them, to more Newton gravitated toward them. He was so wrapped up in trying to shield his own memories that he barely saw Newton’s. He wasn’t even able to accurately gauge Newton’s reaction to everything he’d seen in Hermann’s head. He’d felt his shock, but then they were in the kaiju. After that, everything happened so quickly. Newton had not seemed repulsed, but they had been a bit preoccupied with the end of the world. 

He jumped at the knock at his door. He remained quiet, as he knew full well who was there and he had no interest whatsoever in talking about his feelings. Newton knocked again, louder, and called out, “C’mon, buddy, open up! We gotta talk about what happened today.”

Hermann wanted to ignore him, but he knew well enough how persistent Newton could be. He picked up his cane and hobbled to the door. He opened it just a crack and said in a very put upon tone, “What can I do for you, Dr. Geiszler?”

Newton pushed past him into the room. “’Dr. Geiszler?’ What the hell are you calling me that for? ‘Newton’ is bad enough, man, don’t start calling me ‘Dr. Geiszler.’” He was drunk, clearly, but there was something else. He seemed anxious.

“We are colleagues. It is customary to refer to colleagues by their titles.”

“Bullshit! Hermann, I was inside your head today. I know how you feel about me and I know that you know I know.”

Hermann glared at him and acknowledged nothing.

“Dude, relax. I reciprocate.”

Hermann frowned harder and shook his head in confusion. “I do not think you understand what that word means, Newton.”

Newton grabbed his face and kissed him. Hermann was too startled to respond. Newton pulled back but kept his hands on either side of his face. “Look, man, I won’t do anything if you don’t want me to, but I want this and I’m pretty sure you do, too.”

Hermann studied his feet for a moment, then mumbled, “Yes.” He looked into Newton’s eyes, large behind his glasses, and said, “Yes. I, I want this.”

Newton grinned and spun him around so fast that Hermann dropped his cane. He gave him a tight-lipped smile and Newton kissed him again. Hermann kissed him back tentatively. Newton’s tongue worked its way inside his mouth and Hermann wanted to protest. He didn’t like shaking hands with people; he certainly didn’t want someone else’s unsanitary tongue in his mouth. But then Newton shifted his hips and pressed his own growing erection against a large bulge in Newton’s trousers. Newton’s strong, tattooed arms held him firm. He stopped worrying about his cane on the floor, stopped focusing on the unhygienic aspects of this whole ordeal, and just let himself kiss Newton in his own sloppy, uncoordinated way.

Until Newton maneuvered him onto the bed and began undoing Hermann’s trousers. He pushed Newton’s hands away and sat up. This _wasn’t_ something he _did_. He’d never done anything like this. 

Newton held his hands up in surrender, then ran them along the v-neck of Hermann’s sweater vest. Newton chuckled. “Did you really shower and get completely dressed again?”

Hermann frowned down at his clothing, then motioned his head toward the hanger on the doorknob. “I left the jacket off.”

“But you hung up the jacket. You hung up the filthy jacket that is covered in blood and kaiju entrails and god knows what else!”

“It is not _covered_ in blood and you were the one playing around with entrails. What would you have me do? Hm? Leave it crumpled in a heap on the floor?”

Newton kissed him quickly. “Yes, Hermann,” he said as he pulled off the sweater vest and tossed it carelessly on the floor, “most people crumple their dirty laundry on the floor.” He undid the top button on Hermann’s shirt. “As a matter of fact,” he said as he worked his way down the buttons, “most people don’t get completely dressed after a shower when they don’t intend to leave their room for the rest of the night.” He pulled the shirt off and tossed it near the vest. “Or are you going to tell me that you were planning to rejoin the party?” He slipped Hermann’s undershirt over his head and tossed that, too, to the floor.

Hermann attempted to cover his bare chest with his arms, but Newton kept swatting them away to kiss his neck and clavicle. “I, I was going to, er, read,” he stammered, distracted as Newton licked his sternum. 

“And you need to be fully dressed to read?”

“I suppose you read naked?” Hermann felt himself blush.

Newton smiled and flipped open the button on Hermann’s trousers. “You should try it sometime. It’s more fun than you’d think.”

Hermann stopped Newton’s hand with his own. He couldn’t do this. His leg was a twisted mess of old surgical scars. It embarrassed him and he didn’t want to see the look of disgust on Newton’s face when he saw it.

Newton kissed just below his navel, making him shiver. “Dude, you really need to relax.” He slid down the zipper and pulled off his trousers and underwear. Hermann squeezed his eyes closed. Newton whistled. “You are one sexy mathematician.” 

He felt something warm and wet on his penis and opened one eye. Newton had him in his mouth, both hands gripped his hips. Hermann let his head fall back on the pillow. The sensation felt . . . Amazing. He groaned in pleasure.

As he began to wonder if he should tell Newton that he was nearing orgasm, he came. Newton took it in stride and did not release him until his breathing slowed and his muscles relaxed.

***

Newt surreptitiously wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and slid up next to Hermann and kissed his jaw. Hermann turned his head to kiss him and gave him a genuine, relaxed smile. Newt beamed. He’d never seen Hermann without a giant stick up his ass, but now he looked young. He looked happy. 

“That was nice, thank you,” Hermann mumbled as he traced his fingertips along Newt’s cheek.

“You’re welcome,” he replied, still grinning. “Any time.”

The look that passed through Hermann’s brown eyes made his cock ache. Not that he had any intention of mentioning it. He could take care of himself later. For now he just wanted to gaze at the beautiful man beside him and make sure he was okay with everything that just happened.

Hermann closed his eyes and a frown settled over his face. Newt assumed he had fallen asleep and his face just naturally relaxed into a frown. 

After several minutes Hermann took a deep breath, looked at Newt with those adorable doe eyes, and said, “Newton, I, I want you inside of me.”

Newt was certain that he had misheard, but he still couldn’t make himself draw a breath. “Huh?”

Hermann heaved an all too familiar sigh. “You know how I hate to repeat myself.”

“Uh, you’re gonna have to this time.”

Hermann took hold of his tie and pulled him into a kiss, then reached a trembling hand down and stroked Newt through his pants. He ached at the feeling of Hermann’s grip over the ribbing of his corduroys. He wanted to undo his fly to relieve some pressure, but he didn’t want to discourage Hermann and his wonderful, _surprisingly strong_ hand. 

Hermann seemed to read his mind and deftly popped open the button and slid down the zipper. He groaned. Hermann slipped his hand inside and wrapped his long fingers around his shaft. He whispered, “Newt, _please_ , I want you to fuck me.”

Newt tumbled backwards off of the bed in his hurry to undress. He fumbled the wallet out of his pocket and pulled out the condom he always kept there but never thought he’d actually use. He wanted to ask if Hermann was sure, but Hermann wasn’t going to offer a third time. He wanted to ask if he’d done this before, but he’d been inside Hermann’s head and already knew the answer to that. He dropped the condom on the bed and stripped off everything but his glasses. Hermann watched, an admiring smile on his thin lips.

Newt knelt on the bed between Hermann’s ankles. He ran his hands along Hermann’s lean legs and gently parted them, wary of hurting his bad leg. Hermann winced but didn’t object. Newt licked his first three fingers then placed one against Hermann’s opening. He gently slid it inside and waited a moment for Hermann to adjust. He moved it around a little, then inserted a second finger. Hermann breathed in sharply and he froze. 

“Keep going,” Hermann muttered through clenched teeth.

Newt maneuvered his two fingers around until he found Hermann’s prostate. Hermann’s spent cock twitched and he let out a low moan. 

Newt grinned and repeated the motion. He added a third finger. After a minute, he asked, “Are you ready?”

“Yes.”

He withdrew his hand and positioned himself with Hermann’s legs wrapped around his waist. He slid the condom on and slowly entered his friend. Hermann squeezed his eyes shut. 

“You’re going to have to tell me if you’re okay because I can’t tell if that’s a good frown or a bad frown.”

“I’m okay. Don’t stop.” Hermann opened his eyes and gave a forced grin. 

Newt moved into a slow, steady rhythm. 

Hermann moaned, “Oh, Newton,” and Newt leaned forward to kiss him forcefully. Hermann gripped his thick, tattooed biceps. 

When Newt felt himself getting close to the edge he brought one hand down around Hermann’s renewed erection. Herman came in a few short strokes and the feeling of his come pulsing over his fingertips was enough to send him over. He yelled Hermann’s name.

He rolled over onto his back next to Hermann, leaving just enough space between them in case Hermann was uncomfortable touching. To Newt’s surprise, Hermann scooted over so their sides were aligned, reached over and took his hand. Newt leaned his forehead against Hermann’s. They drifted off to sleep like that, in perfect, contented silence.


End file.
